Japan rejects Trump’s statements that he is devaluing his own coin – observer

The Japanese government has rejected the charges on Monday by US President Donald Trump that Japan is devaluing its own coin, stating that it is in close communication with Washington on these issues.

“We are not adopting a policy to weaken our currency. If you remember our exchange market interventions in recent years, you will understand what I mean, ”said Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato at a press conference after the US President’s comments.

Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi also denied that Tokyo is following a currency control policy and said that “currency issues will continue to be the subject of narrow consultations” between Kato and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as has happened since the summit between Trump and the Japanese Prime Minister Shiger, in Washington, on February 10th.

Japanese government comments appear hours after Trump threatened to have additional rates on Japan and China, claiming that these countries purposely devalue their currencies to take advantage of commercial benefits that exchange rate devaluation offers.

“It’s unfair to us,” the United States, Trump said, ensuring that the way they face such a situation “is easy, [é] with tariffs ”.

Banco do Japan (Boj) has maintained a currency depreciation monetary policy for more than a decade to try to maintain inflation around its stable goal of 2%, causing a strong devaluation of yen over other currencies, especially the US dollar and the euro.

The devaluation of IENE contributed to inflating companies’ profits and the value of national exports, as well as having the boom of tourism.

In recent years, however, Japan will intervene several times in the currency market to contain accentuated devaluation of the yen, reflecting the divergence of monetary policies between Japan and the United States.

Since Kazuo Ueda became governor of Boj in 2023, the Japanese Central Bank has entered a rate of rise, but the yen remains weak.

Trump’s comments led to a sudden appreciation of Iene from the dollar, which in the previous hours had been negotiated in the upper range of 148 units per dollar, before recovering to 149 units.